From Paris to the prairie

Emma Vialard enjoys the fun that Brookings youngsters have when winter snows hit the area. Snow is not uncommon in France, but it's not the stuff of blizzards like the one that hit the Brookings area the weekend of Dec. 8. Courtesy photo
/ The Vialard family, from Paris, enjoy their first Christmas – a White one – here in Brookings. Photo by John Kubal/Register

• Bel engineer, family settling into city

BROOKINGS – "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)" was the question raised as World War I ended, and "doughboys" from rural America returned home from the battlefields of France.

Now, in a sort of reverse of that song, a French family has been brought to Brookings. From Paris to the prairie – to the warmth of home and hearth in Brookings, with an early winter blizzard thrown in – has been the odyssey of Thierry Vialard, his wife Veronique and their daughter, Emma.

Might they want to stay in Brookings after their planned time here is over?

Brought to Brookings by Bel Brands to help oversee the construction of its new $160-million cheese plant here, Thierry, accompanied by his family, left France near the end of June and arrived in Brookings the first week in July.